Construction WEBCAM

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Construction completion reaches 70%

October 2017 - Premier Brad Wall was in Saskatoon on Friday, October 13, for a private tour of Saskatchewan's new maternal and children's hospital construction site. This month, construction of the new facility reached 70 per cent completion. The building is now at its final shape with all levels of the hospital, including the helipad, structurally complete. Read more here.

Temporary Parkade exit gate closure in late September

September 2017 - Starting the week of September 25, construction crews will need to work on ongoing facility connections between Royal University Hospital (RUH) and Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital, resulting in the temporary closure of the parkade exit adjacent to the Saskatoon Cancer Centre (SCC).

Because of this exit gate closure, all vehicles will need to exit via the parkade helix. However, the helix has a height restriction of 2.0 metres that will NOT allow larger vehicles to leave the parkade.

This closure is for the continuing construction required for the new maternal and children’s hospital electrical duct bank. Excavation around the SCC/RUH parkade gates is needed to support this work and the exit lane will be closed for safety reasons. This exit gate closure was initially scheduled to last over the summer months, but crews were able to come up with alternatives. The result was a one week exit gate closure at the start of summer, and now will this additional one to two week closure.

Please expect delays when driving to and parking at RUH or the Saskatoon Cancer Centre. You will find a printable version of this information, including a map, by clicking here.

Staff get sneak peek at NICU rooms

August 2017 - They’re the first nearly-complete spaces within the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital, and in July, staff who will be working within them got to check them out.

Saskatoon Health Region staff involved with the construction of Saskatchewan’s new maternal and children’s hospital, along with those who work in the current Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), joined architects, engineers and contractor representatives to inspect two assessment rooms within the new NICU, located on the fourth floor of the new hospital. Construction on the two assessment rooms has progressed to the point where interior finishes and certain equipment items such as lighting are completed, except for the future equipment and furnishings that need to be added once construction is completed.

“The intent of the assessment room inspections is to conduct a quality assessment to identify any construction issues and set the standard before the contractor proceeds with remaining rooms,” explains Craig Ayers, project director for the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital build. “This standard will then be replicated as the contractor completes all other rooms of a similar type.”

Involving clinical, infection prevention and control, and support services representatives in these inspections helps ensure any location conflicts between any items are identified and allows Saskatoon Health Region and representatives of the design team to establish the minimum standard of acceptability. It also helps ensure that everything from electrical outlets to location of services like medical gases, oxygen and suction on the headwalls of patient beds are in the right place as identified during the design process.

“There will be further assessment rooms completed and reviewed in the coming months for other departments and different room types as the interior finishes are completed through all floors of the building,” Ayers adds.

Adeline Riehl, the manager of nursing for the NICU, was one of the staff members who got to have a look at the rooms, along with Helen Longpre, NICU Clinical Nurse Educator, and Monique Pavely, in charge of Children’s Services Equipment and Supplies.

“The experience was overwhelming,” Riehl says. “It was the first time Helen and Monique were able to experience the new hospital, so it was great to see their reactions to where we all will soon be working.”

It was “a humbling experience,” seeing the room come together, after all the meetings held years ago during the design phase – deciding what should go where and how it should function, Riehl adds.

“The teams that worked on every aspect of the design and construction have done an unbelievable job,” she notes. “The first time I was in the new building, the NICU was at the framing stage, and that experience just about brought me to tears.”

Now, she noted, she is anxious for the hospital to be done, as the new environment will be such a wonderful place for patients, families and staff.

“I am also eager to get more staff the opportunity to see the new unit – it will be great to document their reactions as well,” she says.

The new NICU will have the capacity to expand to 48 rooms, including five twin rooms. All patient rooms will be private rooms, with space for parents to stay with their babies, family sleep rooms which are spaces where parents can go for quiet time away from their child’s room, multiple private family spaces, and a kitchen area.